Primaris Marines - Easy to Play?

Hey guys,

Today I thought I'd write out some points from a discussion I had with one of my regular gaming pals Dan. We had a 2000pt game of space wolves, versus Deathwing and Primaris Marines. The Primaris components of the list were:

Captain in Gravis Armour

1 x squad of Hellblasters

2 x squads of Intercessors

2 x squads of Inceptors

These are all I have partially built and based for the moment, and whilst I normally don't play with unfinished models, I was itching to see how they would play out. The game turned out to be a win for the Primaris/Deathwing combo, though with savage brutality and casualties on both sides. Dan was running Space Wolves as it happened, and I'll have a little note on them at the end. 

After the game finished, Dan made a point about the Primaris being 'easy to play'. And after some back and forth with myself playing Devils Advocate, I have mulled this idea over and I have come to agree with it. I'm going to breakdown my thoughts per unit below:

Captain in Gravis Armour + Hellblasters

The Captain in Gravis armour didn't manage to get into combat, so his utility beyond re-rolls of 1 wasn't really realised in this game. However, that ability to re-roll 1's with the Hellblaster squad was invaluable! The hellblasters have a 6 inch move and 3 inch range, effectively putting 5 shots out at 36 inches, or 10 shots out at 21 inches (6 inch move and 15 inch rapid fire/double tap range). 

Being able to overcharge to S8 and 2 damage means that these guys posed a threat to anything on the board, including a leviathan dreadnought. The captain in Gravis armour meant that overcharging was somewhat mitigated as you could re-roll those 1's and potentially avoid losing a model. 

The potency of this combination, in addition to the enhanced ranged of the guns over traditional plasma really does make this pairing relatively easy to use. Double wounds on the Primaris marines also gives the squad good survivability, especially in cover, from any deep striking nonesense that tries to take them out. 

Intercessors

The intercessors main bonus, other than the 2 wounds, is that extra 6 inches of range. It seems relatively trivial, but particularly when paired against an opposing astartes force using regular bolters, that 6 inches allows you to stay out of effective range of small arms fire and still go for juicy targets like tactical squads with gay abandon. 

This in turn means that alternative resources must then be diverted to take the Intercessors out, this can result in overkill of the unit, even with its 2 wounds apiece, but crucially they are taking fire from bigger targets OR they are simply ignored for those targets. Ignoring them is probably the best decision a lot of the time I'd wager, but they are a potent thorn in your opponents side because of the range and the enhanced AP of -1 over a regular bolter.

Inceptors

The real stars of the show. And how! Not only do the Inceptors have enhanced toughness (5) and a 10 inch move, they also put out a staggering 6 shots each at 18 inch range! These shots are at S5 and Ap-1, so mini assault heavy bolters. Being assault means they can also advance for extra range and still fire those weapons, albeit at a -1 to hit. A squad of 3 puts out a frankly incredible 18 shots, that will wound anything shy of toughness 10 on 5s. AND as they have the fly key word, they can also fall back out of combat and still shoot. 

Coupled with the ability to deepstrike, these chaps can virtually guarantee being in range of the targets they want to obliterate, and short of storm shields, they can put serious hurt on any 2+ armour save as well by reducing it to a 3+. 

Now these guys come in at over 200 points a squad, and I'm not saying they are invincible by any means. But they have a lot going for them that make them incredibly versatile.

Easy to Play?

I think that Primaris marines are easy to play. Note however that I do not think that this equals over powered. The relative costs of each of these units is I think fair, particularly in the case of the Inceptors. When I describe them as easy to play, I mean that there are obvious uses for each of the component units that we currently have on release. 

Why is this? Well simply put, if you want to attract people to a game, you don't want an overtly complicated faction as your main draw, and I think the Primaris marines fill this ideal admirably. 

I have no doubt, that you can beat Primaris marines with all manner of lists and armies, however, the relative tactical acumen and knowledge of your units abilities is higher for those armies when compared to the 'entry level' Primaris marines. 

They are not an auto win army, but they lack a lot of the more convoluted nuances that say T'au or Tyranids have, who have to take great account of markerlights and synpase respectively. 

Do you agree? Disagree? Either way, polite and pleasant in the comments if you please :)

Peace out,

Rob

Early Thoughts on 8th Edition 40k

Hey all,

Been quiet around here for a change eh!? I have been doing lots of building which has taken sometime with my choice of bases requiring me to sit in the garden with rocks and a hammer and hope that when I break the rock it doesn't just disintegrate! That will hopefully make sooner rather than later. 

I've played a few games of 8th Edition now and I just wanted to share a few little thoughts on the basic mechanics and play choices. 

Points versus Power

I have played both of these playstyles so far. Whilst I can definitely see the utility of power levels for pick up and play games in particular I will personally be limiting how much I play of power levels, if I play it at all. 

The problem with power levels to me is that it is open to vast amounts of abuse. And as with every edition of 40k, there are people that want to win more than engage in mutual wargaming fun. Not having to account for the cost of each upgrade, beyond model count, allows for a vasy disparity between the efficacy of the forces on the table to exist.

The points system, with its granularity and specificity, along with what I think is an overall very well balanced cost for each individual item (or at least the ones I have surveyed) gives a really fine balanced feel to the games I have played and they have been appropriately much closer as well. 

Dilution of the Rules - Or lack thereof

I have seen many complaints that the rules are too simple and they have removed flavour from the game. I cannot stress how much  I disagree with this idea. Fundamentally the way the game is played has changed, and people who cry foul of simplification are I think simply playing 7th Edition with the 8th Edition ruleset. 

The intrinsic value of each unit and their utilities has markedly changed. For the better! I have been writing lists for armies that I would never have thought to collect previously for one of two reason. Either those armies had only one viable build which did not fit my desired aesthetic for an army, OR that army was simply to powerful across the board and thus became unfun to play. 

Chess has very few rules, as does Go. However both of these games are notoriously complicated within themselves through the combination of moves that you can achieve. 8th Edition 40k (and indeed Age of Sigmar) are akin to this concept. 

8th Edition presents far more utility of overall tactical play than 7th Edition ever had. List building is going to be far less of a deciding factor in outcome of a game than it ever has been to my mind. 

Combat is Back!

Combat is bruuuutal. In a good way of course :D I don't think it is over powered at all, it is simply that armies played in 7th that are now played in 8th were not designed to account for close combat threats due to their lack of efficacy on the table. Similarly the ability to charge after deepstrike was a massive limiter on close combat units that then required the points sink of a transport to get anywhere near the enemy. Which then did not pay dividends on the overall investment. 

Linking to my point above, this change in fundamentals means that so many more units are viable for presentation in a fluffy list, or just a list that plays the way you want it to. 

Overall

I don't think I have written anything that will blow the socks off anyone playing 8th Edition, but these are some immediate concepts that jump out at me. I really do feel that the whole system has been rebalanced incredibly well, particularly when using points. 

What we need to do it wait for a good amount of time as the codices are released and we should gradually see peoples armies shift away from a 7th Edition mindset and enter a much, much more diverse 8th Edition Meta. 

Peace out,

Rob

Painting Primaris Marines - Mark II Paint Scheme

Hey'all,

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback yesterday on the orange and blue Primaris paint scheme. I am very appreciative of the help to improve my schemes (bit evil sounding there) and techniques :) With that in mind I present to you Mark II of the paint scheme! I am still lacking marking for squad, rank and chapter as well as battle damage but that will all come soon enough!

Damn the cat hair that wheedled its way into the last few pictures! Our cat has thick hair and is shedding currently, the cute furry little bugger!

Peace out,

Rob

Primaris Marines in 8th Edition - A Fresh Start

Hello all you fine folk :)

Point the first - I have a month of comments to reply too (again!), as usual I am very sorry for my profligate approach to replying, it has becoming something of a personal bugbear of mine that I am struggling to address. Mostly because I appreciate every single comment I ever get, I read them all and I wish I was more timely in my responses! I am setting aside time over the coming days to answer them all!

Point the second - This paint scheme on the Primaris pictured is not my finalised scheme! Please give feedback freely on colour choices and style :)! My motivation for trying something bright was in order to have a look at different painting techniques that were somewhat cleaner; this was intended to make me a better painter as I wouldn't be hiding behind darkness and damage so much. 

Point the third - The reeaaal motivation behind this is the standard of painting that I saw at Warhammer Fest in the Golden Demon. I don't necessarily think that I have to master layering and blending in order to win something beyond a pin, BUT I do think that not relying on something I'm comfortable with will make me a better painter and give me more strings to my bow to achieve the effects I desire on a miniature and help push up my chances in such a high standard environment. 

All that said, here's lots of pictures! 

I've already had a suggestion to swap the blue for a grey, which definitely works in my head at least, so something I may be trying! Others things to bear in mind is this was my first time attempting layering and blending without using a battered dry brush so be gentle ;)

Peace out,

Rob

Completed Deathwing Army Ready for 8th!

Hey all,

Today I will finally show you the finished Deathwing army that I have had for a while now. I was just needing to do some basing and they were complete, but it ended up getting put down the priorities list for some time! However they are all ready to rumble now in 8th Edition, and I can firmly say I never want to paint this damn scheme again!

That said I may feel the same way with the Ravenwing when I am done with them...

Full speed ahead (ahahha) with the Ravenwing now! I have been undercoating the sprues with a mind to doing a lot of the basic layers on the sprues. I wouldn't normally do this, but with so much to build and paint the same colour, I think it might save me a lot of time in the long run. 

Tally ho!

Peace out,

Rob

8th Edition Deathguard - Poxwalkers and DONE!

Good morrow,

Today I've got the final section of the Deathguard half of the Dark Millennium Starter box that is available of the shelves this Saturday - The Poxwalkers. If you want to check out the other parts of the set then you can click HERE for the Deathguard marines and HERE for the HQ choices and Plague Drone. You can also see them in plastic grey by clicking HERE.

The Poxwalkers are a marked step up in the humanisation of plague zombies that have been seen in the past. Previously you would have had to convert Imperial Guard miniatures or use Fantasy zombies for this role. Now, you have a smorgasbord of miniatures filled with personality of when the bearers were infected with the pox; ranging from mining overalls, to lab suits, to hazmat suits and oxygen canisters. 

I left these to paint till last as I was quite put off by the sheer diversity of colours required and the prevalence of bare flesh. Flesh painting is traditionally something I steer well clear of, but as it turns out, these were by far the easiest to paint of the lot! Despite there being 20 of them in total they took around 5 hours to finish up which was very satisfying as I was dreading another late finish after a full Friday evening and all Saturday day/night of painting. 

As the 20 miniatures are duplicates of 10 unique sculpts, I've only taken pictures of each unique sculpt for you to look over :)

So there you have the whole box set of Deathguard! They were a pleasure to paint, but that said I have to paint this batch another 3 times at least for a variety of people... Should keep me quite busy! Coming up soon as well should be pictures of the completed Deathwing force and progress being made on the Ravenwing. Tally ho!

Peace out,

Rob